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Lubliner & Hiebert An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates as a Source of General Academic Language Shira Lubiner California State University, East Bay Elfrieda H. Hiebert TextProject & University of California, Santa Cruz TextProject Article Series July 2014 TextProject, Inc. SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates 2 [To appear in Bilingual Research Journal, 2011, 34(1), 76-93] Abstract Three analyses of Spanish-English cognates were conducted, with the purpose of identifying features that might facilitate or inhibit bilingual students' cognate recognition and cross-language transfer of vocabulary. Results revealed that both GSL and AWL corpora contain a substantial number of English-Spanish cognates, a high percentage of which can be categorized by one of 20 cognate patterns. Orthographic and phonological transparency was analyzed, suggesting that cognates are more transparent in terms of orthography than phonology. A frequency analysis indicated that most AWL cognates are more common in Spanish than in English. Results suggest that Spanish-speaking students may have a "cognate advantage" if they are taught to recognize cognates. An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates 3 An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates as a Source of General Academic Language Students who speak English as a second language face a daunting task on the road to English literacy. They must learn a vast number of English words in order to comprehend the texts they are required to read in school. Researchers estimate that English-speaking students learn approximately 3,000 words per year (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985) and know as many as 75,000 words by the end of high school (Snow & Kim, 2007). The vocabulary development of Spanish-speaking English learners lags behind that of native English speakers at every level, putting them at risk for academic under-achievement (August, Carlo, & Snow, 2005; Snow & Kim, 2007). According to the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 17% of Latino fourth grade children scored at the proficient or advanced level in reading, compared to 42% of White students (Education Trust, 2007). Although Latino achievement on NAEP has improved during the past decade, the achievement gap remains a major concern. Despite the challenge that they face, Spanish-speaking students may have an advantage not available to all English learners. The Spanish and English languages share a common alphabet and 10,000- 15,000 cognates, words that are Latin-based, mean approximately the same thing, and share similar orthographic features (Nash, 1997). The influence of Latin on the two languages has provided people who speak English and Spanish with a common linguistic heritage - a potential "fund of knowledge" (Moll, Armanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992) that bilingual students bring with them to American schools. (All references to bilingual students in this paper refer to those who speak Spanish as their first language, unless otherwise stated.) An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates 4 English learners usually acquire words used for basic communication quickly; however academic vocabulary is often much more difficult to master (Cummins, 1994). Academic vocabulary is a term used to describe the vocabulary needed for academic discourse and comprehension of content area texts. It includes words that are used for general academic functions such as analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating information across disciplines—words such as observe, conclude, system, and process. Other forms of academic language consist of the technical, concept-laden words that are unique to each discipline and literary vocabulary (Hiebert & Lubliner, 2008). All three forms of academic language—general academic, content-specific, and literary--are part of a sophisticated linguistic register that is heavily Latin-based. In this study we focus on one of these vocabularies—general academic vocabulary. Unlike the content- specific vocabulary that is central to subject area instruction such as science and social studies (e.g., terrarium, frigid zones) or the literary vocabulary that is emphasized in reading/language arts programs (e.g., tranquil, bayonet), general academic vocabulary is not the focus of instruction in either subject areas or reading/language arts. Typically, knowledge of general academic vocabulary such as form, model, and system is assumed by authors of content-area texts, even though these words often change their meanings, parts of speech, and morphological forms in different subject areas. A high percentage of general academic vocabulary words are Latin-based, providing the possibility of a cognate advantage to Spanish-speaking students. This potential cognate advantage has a historical explanation. Spanish descended directly from Vulgar Latin and Latin-based words are used for everyday communication purposes in Spanish. Corresponding Latin-based words in English are often more sophisticated than the more frequent German-origin vocabulary words. For example, construct and construir are cognates, descended from the same Latin word construere. However, construir is much more frequent than An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates 5 construct and is used for everyday communication in Spanish. The asymmetrical relationship between academic vocabulary words in Spanish and English is due to the direct descent of Latin to Spanish (simple word to simple word) and the circuitous path that Latin words followed as they were incorporated into English (simple word to more complex word). Some Latin-based words entered English via French as a result of the French domination of England from 1066 through 1399. Other Latin words came directly into English during the Renaissance to meet demands for a sophisticated scientific and literary register that the English language lacked (Barber, 2000). Despite the potential advantage that cognates offer, bilingual students often fail to notice cognate pairs even when they appear to be quite transparent (August, Carlo, & Snow, 2005, Feldman & Healy, 1998; Garcia, 1991; Nagy, 1995; Nagy, Garcia, Durgunoglu, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993). Nagy et al. (1993) documented that fifth- and sixth-grade bilingual, biliterate Spanish- speaking students circled less than half of the known cognates that they encountered on a test of cognate identification. The reasons why students find cognate identification so difficult are not fully understood. It seems likely that cognate transparency is mediated by individual differences, exposure to cognate instruction, and by the complex array of semantic, orthographic, and phonological features that characterize particular sets of cognates (August et al., 2005). Cognate pairs rarely match in every way. The degree of orthographic, phonologic, and semantic overlap between cognates can be viewed as a set of inter-related continua, ranging in each dimension from identical to very different. Semantic Factors Semantic relatedness is the "gold standard" in terms of cognate status, determining whether orthographically similar words in Spanish and English can be used by bilinguals in An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates 6 cross-linguistic transfer. However, semantic relatedness is not a simple construct. Spanish- English cognates share a common Latin root, but the languages have evolved over time and cognates do not always mean precisely the same thing in terms of contemporary usage. Trask (1996) identified seven categories that describe the relationship between cognates that differ semantically, four of which are relevant to this discussion: 1) generalization: the English word is more general than the Spanish word, 2) specialization: the English word is narrower and more specific than the Spanish word, 3) melioration: the English word has a more positive meaning than the Spanish word, 4) pejoration: the English word is more negative in meaning than the Spanish word. Table 1 contains examples of Spanish-English cognates that illustrate generalization, specialization, melioration, and pejoration. The examples in Table 1 demonstrate the complexity of cognate relatedness. For example, the pair molest/molestar is an example of pejoration, a phenomenon that occurred over many centuries as Latin-based words entered English. The Spanish word molestar descended directly from the Latin word molestare (to bother or annoy) and retained the original meaning. The word, molest entered English via Old French around the twelfth century, gradually diverging from molestare and acquiring a deviant sexual connotation. Despite divergence in meaning, it is important to note that the semantic association between most of these cognate pairs is evident. The term "false cognate" is often applied to any set of words that do not mean precisely the same thing in two languages, such as molest/molestar (Prado, 1996). However, this term should be reserved for words that are entirely unrelated such as rope (a braided cord) and ropa (clothes) or words that have diverged so greatly that no semantic overlap can be discerned, such as assist (help) and asistir (attend). Word pairs that are etymologically related, but share less than full meaning, can more accurately be labeled partial-cognates. The degree of semantic An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates 7 overlap can be thought of as a continuum with “full” cognates which have identical meanings in the two languages (e.g., art/arte) at one end of the continuum and false cognates at the other end (e.g., rope/ropa (rope/clothes). Between the two extremes are partial cognates with
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